


Children Listen (to Hear Sleigh Bells in the Snow)

by AliuIce0814



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, Science Bros, Tony Stark Has A Heart, bruce is tony's conscience, clint hides in ceilings, merry freaking christmas from tony!, natasha is a cat, so is pepper, sometimes you have to suck it up and be festive, steve misses his mommy, thor likes midgard a lot, tony plays a reluctant santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 05:24:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/606280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliuIce0814/pseuds/AliuIce0814
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark did not personally celebrate Christmas anymore, but Steve mentioned at Thanksgiving, and then there was no stopping it. In which Bruce dreams of a white Christmas (and Thor obliges), Clint is a bird (and Tasha is a cat), and Steve somehow coerces Tony into being a sentimental Santa.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Children Listen (to Hear Sleigh Bells in the Snow)

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by my mum. You go, Mummy. Four for you, Mummy.

Tony Stark did not personally celebrate Christmas anymore, but Steve mentioned at Thanksgiving—all pleading blue eyes, damn him, he was more puppy than soldier sometimes—that he hadn’t had a proper Christmas since his mother died, let alone since he came out of the ice. Tony was awesome in all respects, but he’d always been a sucker for long-legged girls and men who begged. Steve’s pleading look crumbled Tony’s resolve to not be sucked into Christmas this year or any other year ever. When Steve woke up on Black Friday, his entire floor had been decorated with tinsel, baubles, and lights, with a modest Christmas tree in his living room. Pepper had convinced Tony that the twenty-foot one would overwhelm the old fogey.

That was all fine and well. Steve hugged Tony, actually came down into his lab and lifted him off the ground, as if he’d finally decided that showing affection didn’t diminish his masculinity. Tony hugged back and cracked a few jokes as Bruce looked on with that familiar wary smile. Steve grumbled at Tony, remembered to thank him again, and then left to decorate his wimpy tree or bake or whatever the hell it was that super soldiers did at Christmastime. Tony honestly thought that would be the end of it.

Then Clint swung down out of the air vent. “I want one.”

Tony yelped and dropped the gauntlet he had been soldering. “Holy shit, Legolas, hey, didn’t know you were back in town. SHIELD let you go early?”

“Yup. Christmas break. Well, ‘Winter Break,’ if you want to be politically correct, which SHIELD does.” Clint perched on the edge of the counter. “They could call it ‘Break of the Sugar Plum Fairies’ for all I care as long as they still give me a month off."

Bruce’s eyebrows crept upward. “A month? Seriously?”

“Yeah. It’s great, man. Just for senior agents, though. Phil strong-armed Fury into it last...year…” Tony could pinpoint the moment when Clint realized what he was saying. Something in the archer’s face tightened before he continued, “so he could go to Portland to see Chris’s family.”

Last month, Tony would have poked and prodded Clint until he either found out Chris’s identity or got an arrow in the ass. Christmastime was different, though, even Tony realized. The first Christmas after Mom and Dad had died had been hell for Tony. Something about all the relatives and love and happy families made all that grief bullshit suck more. Today, Tony fiddled with the broken gauntlet. “So are you a Christmas guy, Robin Hood?”

Clint shrugged. “I’m not religious. You know that, Stark. The shiny part of Christmas is good, though. The lights, the tree…I’ve never had that. Not as a kid, not in the circus, sure as hell not in SHIELD.”

“Yeah, somehow I can’t picture Fury in a Santa hat,” Bruce said.

Clint grinned. “I’ll give you fifty bucks if you can make it happen.”

Even as he laughed, Tony retraced the steps of the conversation. “Hang on. Barton, you said you ‘wanted one.’ Wanted one what? What Cap has? Your whole floor decorated? Tree, lights, mistletoe, the whole shebang?”

“Aw, yeah. Definitely. Except—can I have a bigger tree? Like one of those ones that scrapes the ceiling?”

“What, are you going to build a nest in it?” Tony dodged when Clint swung at him. “Or are you going to be the angel on top?”

“My name’s Clint, not Clarence, asshole. You going to get it for me?”

“Why not? Might as well. Whatever keeps you happy, little bird.” Tony didn’t duck quickly enough this time. Clint didn’t hit him hard, but he did stun him long enough to steal his blueberries before he hopped back up into the air vent. “Hey, I can rescind that at any time. You’re tiptoeing, Barton!”

Tony didn’t have to turn around to know that Bruce was smiling. Before he could go back to work on his gauntlet, Bruce held out a package to him. “Blueberry?”

“Thank you, Doctor Banner. I knew I kept you around for a reason.”

So Clint got his floor of the Tower decorated. Okay, that was fine. He converted half of his tinsel into zip lines within twelve hours, which led to Tony and him having a design and fabrication powwow in R&D at three in the morning to build ones more suited for the field. By the time the Avengers were called to assemble at ten, Clint’s new toys were fully functional. Sunday’s Times had a two-page spread about Hawkeye’s highly fashionable Christmas weapons and their use against this week’s aliens.

Then Pepper decided to test out the electric fireplace in their den while Tony was back at the Malibu house. When he arrived back at the Tower a week later, the place felt like an oven. All of the other Avengers, plus Pepper, were sprawled around the den, boneless in the heat. Curled closest to the fire, with the indifferent demeanor of a sleepy cat and wrapped in a knitted sweater, lay Natasha. As Tony hesitated in the doorway, staring, Natasha opened one eye to look at him. Tony knew that look. He knew that look meant impending doom if he disturbed her.

Tony chose to get a drink instead. Someone had put bows on all of his bottles of scotch. He couldn’t decide whether to feel irritated or to laugh. Beside Natasha, Clint burrowed deeper into his own sweater and yawned. After determining that Pepper (probably) wouldn’t take his drink away and (probably) wouldn’t force him to wear a sweater, too, Tony found a spot on the couch by her and let the heat lull him to sleep.

When he woke up, it was barely light outside. It was also snowing. It took Tony a minute to realize what had woken him. A sudden flash of light outside the glass wall was followed quickly by a rumble. Tony sat up, rubbing his neck, and looked over toward where Bruce stood at the window with a cup of tea. “Lightning in a snowstorm?”

“Thor,” Bruce answered. When Tony raised an eyebrow, he explained sheepishly, “He heard me singing ‘White Christmas’ yesterday. You know how he is.”

“Right. He’s our Amelia Bedelia.” Tony stood up and went to stand by Bruce. He didn’t have to admit it out loud, but he did think the snow was pretty, especially since he wouldn’t have to drive in it. If he’d been a kid again, he would have called it magical, except it wasn’t because there was no such thing as magic, dammit. Even Loki’s tricks could be attributed to science. Tony would go to the grave proving everyone else wrong about that.

“It does seem more like Christmas now, doesn’t it?” When Tony shot him a curious look, Bruce ducked his head. Tony blinked.

“Didn’t peg you for being sentimental about religious holidays, Doctor Banner.”

Bruce shrugged. “It isn’t really a religious holiday anymore, is it? Not the way we’re celebrating it. It is sentimental. That’s the point. It’s about celebrating the year with your family or friends.” Bruce pulled off his glasses and wiped them off with a corner of his shirt. “I haven’t had anything to celebrate in years, let alone anyone to celebrate it with. This is nice, Tony.”

Tony didn’t have a reply for that, not even a snarky one, because one, it was Bruce, and two, he was right, as usual. He just watched the snow blanket the city before he asked, “Do you think we can find ice skates big enough for Pointbreak?”

So somehow, between all of his teammate’s holiday cheer, and Pepper’s encouragement, Tony decorated the whole damn tower. _Like Christmas_ , he’d called the Tower when they’d first lit it up in May, _only with more…me_. Now it was just like Christmas, full-stop, no Tony Stark involved. Tony hated it. He absolutely hated it, but you know what? Even JARVIS and the ‘bots seemed to be getting into the spirit of things. JARVIS played carols for Bruce whenever he worked in the lab, and when Tony tried to take a Santa hat off of Dummy, the little robot actually whined. Tony wasn’t one to refuse his mechanical children anything. He had to keep things festive, if only to keep JARVIS from doing terrible things to the Iron Man suit.

Christmas morning would be the tricky part. Tony knew by now that all of his teammates would enjoy a child’s Christmas morning, whether they would admit it or not. Hell, maybe he’d enjoy it, too, after a glass or two of scotch. Tony Stark was nothing if not a giver of great gifts. If what his crazy, childish teammates (oh, great, he sounded like Pepper) wanted was a Christmas complete with tinsel and trees and presents from Santa, that’s what they would get. Their Santa just happened to be in a red-and-gold armored flying suit.

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas, everyone, whether you're Tony or Steve.


End file.
